Part Drone, Part Worker Bee

Very rare.

Very rare, indeed.

It has the eyes of a drone and the body of a worker bee.

And no, this is not science fiction. It's a mutant honey bee.

"They're not totally uncommon," said Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen of the UC Davis Department of Entomology. "But they're there."

It was "there" yesterday at a queen-production business in Glenn County. The occasion: Bee breeder-geneticist Susan Cobey of the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at UC Davis was guiding her "Art of Queen Bee Rearing" class on a tour of several businesses.

As the beekeeping class walked into the grafting room, Cobey stood outside for a moment.

"Look," she said. "A cyclops bee."  (In Greek mythology, cyclops is a race of one-eyed giants.)

Cobey picked it up and cradled it in her hand for several seconds before it flew away. Four things about this bee:

1. It could fly.

2. It had the wrap-around eyes of a drone or a male bee.

3. It had a stinger, like that of a worker bee.

4. It had pollen baskets, like that of a worker bee.

"It was a happy, healthy bee," said Cobey. Her mentor, Harry Hyde Laidlaw Jr. (1907-2003), considered the father of honey bee genetics, did research on them.

This particular bee? Would it be like a worker bee, gathering pollen, nectar and propolis? Or would its sisters feed it, as they do drones?

"I don't know what kind of a job is in store for it," Cobey said. "But I know it had a stinger. It was trying to get me."

Cobey estimates she sees a cyclops bee about "once or twice a year."

Interestingly enough, there's an article on "Mutant and Gynandromorphic Honey Bees" in the March edition of the American Bee Journal. Author Wyatt Mangum of the Mathematics Department, University of Mary Washington, Fredericksburg, Va., recalls finding one in his childhood that had "the head of a drone and the body of a worker."  His article offers a detailed look at bee genetics.

"Mutant drones usually have a short life," Mangum wrote. "Provided the mutant drone is sexually mature, the mutation can be propagated with instrumental insemination and studied. Workers are found with mutations, too, though very rarely. A particular striking one is the cyclops mutation. Its genetic properties are poorly understood."

Poorly understood, yes. And rarely seen, definitely.

The one Cobey spotted Thursday morning stayed in her hand for several seconds before it buzzed away--but that was just enough time for a quick photograph.